Artemis meets Lelouch
by JP26
Summary: This was a commission for my professor for philosophy so expect it to be long. Enjoy.


Disclaimer: I do not own Artemis Fowl and Lelouch Lamperouge. This is a commission for my professor, and I'd like to share it with you.

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Seventeen year old Artemis Fowl sat in his study, waiting for his guest to arrive. It had been a long time since he had a talk with a fellow genius, apart from his witty and snappy talks with Minerva which had ceased somehow as they grew older, responsibilities as the eldest of their family getting the best of them. Butler, his bodyguard, knocked on the giant oak door that leads into the study, announcing the arrival of a certain Lelouch Lamperouge. Young Artemis rubbed his hands together, flushed with the promise of the challenge. Lelouch Lamperouge is known for his ruthless usage of his followers against his father, who is a more ruthless man than he is, to start a war and used the rebels as his chess pieces to gain the throne of Britannia.

"Good evening." a mild voice said from the doorway. Artemis looked up and saw a raven haired man, wearing black uniform and leather shoes. Artemis stood up to greet his visitor.

"I presume you are Lelouch Lamperouge?" Artemis said with his usual cynical smile, holding out his hand. Lelouch looked at the Irish boy's outstretched hand and smiled.

"I didn't know I came here for a friendly chat." he said, his mild voice intimidating Artemis in a way the young Irish boy cannot understand how.

"Very well," Artemis said as he withdrew his hand, slightly taken aback by Lelouch's personality. It seems like Lelouch had inherited his father's blood, down to the smallest drop of it, and none from his mother. As far as Artemis had uncovered from Lelouch's past, his mother was murdered right in front of him some years ago and the Irish boy wondered how he had recovered from such trauma. He and Lelouch sat down in the soft chairs in the study. However, for some reason, Artemis could not feel any remorse or pity towards the cool Lelouch who seems to be more inclined towards business at hand, for he seems that he doesn't even much care of what had happened to his past. Much like the Artemis five years ago when he was seeking his father's whereabouts when the Fowl Star sunk at Murmansk, Russia.

"I've heard from your exploits that you are quite well known in underground tournaments and such." Artemis said, pulling out a chess board that is wrought out of clear diamond. It was a gift from Minerva on his 16th birthday, and Artemis wondered if Minerva somehow got hold of his past records in chess tournaments. "Especially in underground chess tournaments against Barons and such, whom I believe, are touchier than your average teenager having his puppy love crushed."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't you think it's a waste of diamond just for this kind of chess board?" he said, noting the intricate carvings on every chess pieces. "And I would advise that you shouldn't poke your nose into other people's life, if you don't want other people to poke into yours."

Artemis set up the chess board and made Lelouch pick his pieces. For an affectionate reason, Lelouch had taken the black chess pieces as Artemis had predicted when the British entered the room. The two of them started to play, trying futile attempts to checkmate the other. Lelouch smugly took Artemis's white knight with his own black knight, and Artemis wondered what's so funny about a knight being taken out by another knight.

"Say Artemis," Lelouch said casually, a thought coming into his mind. Artemis looked up at him. "If you have dug into my past records THAT deep, surely you would've known about the story about the Black King and the White Knight I'm very fond of?"

Artemis looked at him bewildered. "Surely I may have overlooked that one, Lelouch." he said, frowning. "But I wouldn't mind that you share the story to me."

Lelouch smiled. "Very well," he said. "There was this Black King who wages war against another king."

Artemis watched as Lelouch moved his king towards Artemis's white bishop. Artemis was taken aback by this sudden move. Apparently, Lelouch had seen Artemis's expression before he could even change it back to his normal passive one.

"Whatever is the point of having a king if the king himself would not move?" Lelouch said smugly, leaning back on his chair as he waited for the Irish boy to make his move. He knew that he had just sealed his opponent's movement just by blocking the bishop. Lelouch waited patiently for Artemis to work out his strategy that got him into a tight spot. Once he moves his other knight, Lelouch's king will take his bishop and that will make HIS king vulnerable to the Black Queen's attack. Three of his white pawns were out of range and his rooks couldn't move either, thanks to Lelouch's pawns that had set themselves up very close together that seems to have been impossible at first. Artemis wondered how he could manoeuvre himself out of his situation. Without thinking the result of his action, Artemis moved his king towards the black knight that Lelouch had stationed near him. Lelouch smiled.

"I wasn't expecting that." he said, a bemused smile on his lips as he moved a black pawn carelessly. Artemis felt a vein in his temple twitch. He knew he's being affronted by the British in front of him, and Artemis is determined to crush his confidence by making the most reckless move he could ever think of before he could even attest what he really has to do. Lelouch leaned forward.

"I'll continue my story then," he said, losing Artemis for a split second of what he was talking about. Artemis shook his head and muttered under his breath to concentrate. Letting his mind wander at times like this is something he least needed. "The Black King has two loyal soldiers that would do his bidding up until the end and he, in return for their loyalty, had promoted them to be the highest ranking official in his game of war, the Knight." Lelouch took the knight nearest the king which Artemis was planning to capture in his next turn.

"The King ordered one of his knights to take down one of the supports of the enemy king for easier infiltration of his territory and which the knight did without the slightest hiccup in his plans."

Artemis watched in horror as Lelouch's knight took one of his immobile rooks out of the game. Lelouch was smiling very widely now, knowing that the game is about to end, with him as the winner. Artemis took a deep breath and thought of his action once again. Lelouch's officials are still intact, with two knights, two bishops, two rooks and his queen, which surrounded the king as if his vanguard against fools who'd try to penetrate their defences. The young Irish boy was thinking deeply when he heard at the back of his mind a voice which seems to be taunting him to charge into that vanguard. He moved his last remaining bishop that skewers a bishop and a rook. Artemis looked up to see Lelouch's expression, which did not change even a little. Lelouch sighed dramatically.

"Ah, I see that you have seen the King's flaw in his strategy." Lelouch said, leaning back. Artemis only raised one eyebrow at this melodrama. "The Black king's white-square bishop is one of his top strategist whilst the rook is his general for everything, may it be support or for frontal attack. While the strategist quiver and the general summing up his strength, the king delved into the enemy's mind and thought what the enemy is up to, to prevent his lost of officers. You see, the black king doesn't like sacrificing that much, except for pawns in his games." He nodded towards the pawns near at the end of Artemis's side.

"Are you giving up already just because of that move, Lelouch Lamperouge?" the Irish boy said with a questionable frown. Somehow, he doesn't like this guy he's playing chess with. He's a lot more worse than Minerva in doing melodrama, for Minerva uses her charms and wits to win against Artemis numerous times just because he himself sets himself up to lose just for the sake of her pleasure. Artemis knew that doing that to Minerva wouldn't do him good, but as long as she's around to play chess with him, he wouldn't mind losing to her. However, his younger siblings' taunting of him losing to a girl is somewhat irritating. He vowed that one day he'll teach them gallantry towards women who are quite unstable as Minerva is during her visits to the Fowl Manor.

"No, I am not." the British replied. "I am just emphasizing the drama on the story." Lelouch moved his hand towards his queen, which Artemis did not see when he had moved his bishop.

"True that there had been a flaw in the King's plan, but the queen, who had been always supportive, came to his rescue and disposes the enemy that had infiltrated into his vanguard." He moved his queen towards the lone bishop and took it out of action. "And because of this action of the queen, the king granted her one wish and that is to be closer to him, and which he let her be. The king isn't that much affectionate towards others, even to his queen, for he only sees them as tools for his victory against the wars he wages against his fellow kings."

"Now, with only a few soldiers left on the white king's army, the black king smiled at his brother and said, 'It's better to give it up now, brother. You cannot win against me.' But the white king only spat at this and is determined to finish the black king personally, even though his remaining followers objected. Or did the king even considered of yielding to the black king's request of giving up his throne and become a spoil of war for the black king to toy with? Well, Artemis? What do you think?"

Artemis sighed. "You may be a good chess player, Lelouch. But don't you think that that story you're making up is really cliché?"

"I am not done yet, Artemis." Lelouch said. "It's now your turn to move, little Arty. But I'm telling you now that be careful on your moves because that might be your last."

Artemis, undaunted, charged his king towards the black king. "I don't like being told what to do by others, thank you very much."

Lelouch shook his head. "I did warn you, Artemis, that be careful of your move…and since when did you become reckless as this? The great Artemis I've heard isn't like this." Lelouch took his other knight and checkmated the white king in an instant. Artemis blinked stupidly for real. It was his first time that he was outmanoeuvred in a chess game like this.

"The game is over, little Arty." Lelouch said, not feeling victorious at all. Artemis gritted his teeth.

"One, don't call me 'Arty'. And two, I know that you won the game and so in drama, so stop bragging."

Lelouch chuckled. "I'm sorry to have offended you, Artemis." He leaned back into his chair to relax his back, as well as ease the tension that had built up somehow on his shoulders. Artemis did the same.

"The next time, you won't win." Artemis said. Lelouch shrugged.

"If I were you, I won't say final things like that." Lelouch smiled. "Oh, and by the way, did you know why the black king waged war against the white king?"

"No." Artemis said. "Are you forgetting that I don't know the story?"

Lelouch smiled. "Sorry about that. Well," he said casually as if he himself had been the one who made the story. "The reason why the black king waged war against the white king is because of their opposing ideas. The black king is a pragmatist and the white king is an idealist. Their confrontation grew from a heated talk to bloodshed. Surely you know what that means, Artemis."

Artemis sighed. "Yes, of course. Pragmatists don't believe in the metaphysical realm, and that they think that something that is true is useful, that usefulness is the basis of the truth."

Lelouch nodded in agreement. "And Idealists are those kinds of people who believe in the metaphysical realm, where what the senses perceive is what it really is and that there is a limit in learning things. To quote Berkeley, '_esse est percipi_' or to be is to be perceived."

Artemis shook his head, bemused. "That sounds like Macbeth's soliloquy: To be or not to be."

"Shakespeare only did that for humour, they say." Lelouch said. "What the idealists really wanted to say is that, nothing exists outside that the mind isn't aware of its existence. However, pragmatists would contradict them and say that things happen because another thing made it happen."

At this point of their conversation, Beckett and Miles, Artemis younger twin siblings, entered the study noisily, interrupting the philosophical conversation the two were having. Artemis sighed at the sight of his younger siblings.

"Beckett. Miles." He said sternly. "Didn't I always say that barging into a room where people are talking privately is rude? What would mother and father will say if they learn that their twins is this rude towards their house guests?"

Beckett and Miles stopped at their tracks. Beckett hung his head in shame, while Miles only pouted at his older brother.

"How are we supposed to know that you have a visitor here in the study, Artemis?" Miles said. "You didn't lock your door, so we presumed that you're not here, didn't we, Beckett?" His twin brother nodded. Artemis sighed again and turned to Lelouch.

"I'm sorry about my brothers. They still need some discipline lessons to take." He said apologetically, then turning to the twins he said, "Now, be good boys and get out of the room". Lelouch only smiled.

"It's alright, Artemis." Lelouch replied. "My brother Rollo used to be like that too when he was still a kid, and so does his twin sister, Nunnally."

Artemis blinked. "You also have younger twin siblings?"

"Why, of course I do, though not as young as those two." Lelouch said, puzzled. "I thought as much that, since you've dug into my past records before I even came here, you know this fact already."

"I don't." Artemis said. "If I had known, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that you have younger siblings."

Lelouch laughed. "Now you're thinking like an idealist, Artemis. Even though your associates say that you're a genius and all, there's still a limit to what you know."

Artemis grimaced. "And you're talking like a pragmatist, Lelouch. Not just because the result of me being uninformed of such things means that I am narrow-minded and such. I preferred that my associates don't call me a genius because no one would believe me."

"You really sound like an idealist, Artemis." Miles interjected, making Lelouch and Artemis look at him.

"And our visitor really sounds like a pragmatist." Beckett added. Lelouch and Artemis looked at each other and laughed, remembering their chess game earlier.

"The White King will have his revenge soon." Artemis said to Lelouch. "Once the Black King returns from his celebration with his underlings, the white king will strike."

"Whoever told you that the Black king isn't always ready for challenges?" Lelouch said, holding out his hand to shake with Artemis's.

"See you soon, I suppose." Artemis said. Lelouch nodded.

"I'll be looking forward to it." He said. Then as an afterthought he said, "Say Artemis?"

"What is it, Lelouch?"

"Do you know a certain Charles zi Britannia?"

Artemis looked puzzled at him. "He sounds like someone from a novel. If he's one of the characters you're talking about in that story of yours, then his name is somewhat realistic."

Lelouch looked wounded. "How could you say such thing, Artemis? That man is my father. The man that I loathe so much, I wish to see him in hell for all the things he had done to me and my siblings. If you deny the fact that he's a real person, it's like as if you're denying that I do not exist, which is of course preposterous since I am standing and talking to you right at this moment."

It took Artemis a moment to chew in what Lelouch had said to him. Then he grinned.

"So, you want some philosophical argument the next time we meet, Lelouch?"

"More or less." Lelouch said absentmindedly. "I'll be seeing you around, Artemis."


End file.
